Advances in Wound Care Reported by Panel

The experts discussed a number of advances that help patients today and research that holds promise for the future. Following is a summary of their remarks.

Advances in tissue engineering allow doctors to treat tissue loss using minimal donor tissue. These advances include multilayer membranes, transplantable sheets of living keratinous tissue, biodegradable polymers for cell transplantation and tissue equivalents. Significant strides have been made in understanding the mechanisms of scarring and the potential of the growth factor TGF beta in blocking collagen synthesis. Current treatment focuses on silicone gel sheeting, which is easy to use, painless, and safe.

The use of growth factors can increase the wound's capacity to heal by causing cells to grow and attracting new cells to the wound. Animal-derived fetal cells are being studied for their value in regenerating damaged tissue resulting from acute and chronic wounds. Fetal wound repair, unlike adult repair, occurs with little or no acute inflammation or scarring.

Research has revealed that stem cells are enormously powerful regenerative tools in wound healing. In addition, the potential exists to genetically manipulate stem cells to correct inborn errors of metabolism or to deliver gene products as medicine. Gene therapy
can also be used as a delivery mechanism to provide proteins directly into the cells of a wound to promote healing.